Tendring: Residents shaken by Army testing

6:00pm Thursday 20th November 2008

Comments (1)   Have your say »

Bomb disposal practice by troops set to go into war zones caused a noise nuisance for coastal residents.

Activity at the Ministry of Defence base in Shoeburyness resulted in a spate of complaints from people living in the area from St Osyth to Clacton.

Residents complained the vibrations from the site, which is about 16 miles away, caused their homes to shake.

A spokesman for Qinetiq, which runs the base, said noise was well below the self-imposed noise limit of 125 decibels.

“We ensure whenever there’s any potential noisy activities we minimise the disruption that’s caused,” he added. “We carry out acoustic forecasting and police the noise limit.

“On November 13, the Army’s school of ammunition was carrying out bomb disposal training prior to deployment in operational theatres.

“Activities were undertaken which may have been perceptible off site in order to provide these personnel with realistic and operationally essential experience of real-life scenarios, albeit in the safe environment of the training area.”

Jeanette Durrant, a sales adviser, said the windows in her Jaywick home were shaken by the explosions.

“You can usually ignore it, but it has been terrible,” she said.

Anyone who has concerns about range activity can call Careline’s freephone number 0800 056 0108.

• There will be gunfire and explosions until Friday. The following week there will be explosions only on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and gunfire and explosions on Wednesday and Thursday. Activity will take place during normal working hours.